Restaurants, institutional kitchens, and other commercial or high-volume food service locations have a need to wash dish and glassware very rapidly. For decades, the most common solution has been a commercial dishwasher, typically incorporating a conveyor belt upon which large racks containing dirty dish and glassware pass through the washing compartment of the commercial dishwasher.
The dish and glassware racks have varied interior configurations, capable of carrying dishes, glasses, and tableware, among other items that are run through the commercial dishwasher for washing. The exterior configuration of the racks is generally the same, however. A dish or glassware rack for use with a commercial dishwasher is typically 19.72″×19.72″ square. Although the height may vary to accommodate small dishes to tall glasses, the lateral profile of racks used with commercial dishwashers is nearly always the same.
Further, racks for use in commercial dishwashers are nearly always stackable, such that dishes and glasses can be vertically stacked for compact storage within the racks. A groove formed in the bottom face of the square rack permits it to be placed on top of another rack, with the top rail of the bottom rack mating with the groove in the bottom face of the top rack. In many racks, the top rail includes locator posts, which are upward-facing protrusions which make the interlock between a bottom rack and a rack stacked above the bottom rack more secure.
One important functional aspect of commercial dish and glassware racks is that they have openings in the bottom of the rack and on all four side walls. This allows water to spray through the bottom or side walls of the rack during washing and reach all surfaces of the dishes or glassware contained within the rack. It is simple to understand that if water could not penetrate the bottom and side surfaces of the rack, efficient cleaning of the dish or glassware would be impossible. The corollary effect, however, is that the water can drip back through the bottom of the rack.
An additional function of the openings in the bottom and sides of the rack is to permit drip-drying of the dish and glassware following its run through the commercial dishwasher. While some conveyor-belt dishwashers have a drying section, many restaurants and other kitchens opt for a commercial dishwasher that is limited to washing and does not include drying capability. Such wash-only dishwashers are less expensive, less complex, and take up less room in the kitchen than one which includes a drying section.
An issue with the use of a wash-only commercial dishwasher, however, is that during drying, the water drips straight through the bottom of the rack and onto the floor, pooling on the floor and possibly creating a safety hazard or other undesirable effect. When multiple dish and/or glassware racks are stacked following their run through the dishwasher, the water from all the racks drips onto the floor. Glasses, particularly, are loaded into a commercial glassware rack upside-down, to facilitate drip-drying. The risk of an employee slipping on the pools of water created when the water drips through the racks onto the floor is high, especially when one considers the tile or other smooth-surface floors often used in the kitchen. Also, on occasion, an employee will carry a rack loaded with dishes or glassware. The holes in the rack will permit the water to drip through the rack onto the employee's clothing, which is undesirable.
Further, when the racks are loaded with dirty dishes or glassware and then transported to the dishwasher, food remnants, unfinished drinks, and other detritus may pass through the bottom of the racks and onto the floor. In addition to the safety hazard described above, germs become an additional concern.
In some restaurants or other kitchens, following washing, the dish or glassware is transported to a storage location. This transport is often facilitated by the use of a dolly. The dolly provides a frame with wheels attached underneath the frame, where the frame is sized to receive a standard commercial dish or glassware rack. A number of racks may be stacked on the dolly, and then the stack of racks may be rolled to where the dishes or glasses are stored. Some dollies have a handle for pushing the stack of racks once loaded onto the dolly. Dollies are also used to transport racks of dirty dishes or glassware.
Most of these dollies have a frame that is open in the center. While some dollies have a closed bottom, that is uncommon. The more likely scenario when clean or dirty dishes and glasses are transported in a dolly is that water or other substances pass right through the bottom of the racks, through the frame of the dolly and onto the floor over which the dolly is being pushed. Rather than just a single pool of water, use of a dolly with an open frame can lead to potentially hazardous spills all over the establishment, including areas of a restaurant where patrons may walk.
What is needed is an apparatus for preventing water or other substances that spill out of the bottom of a commercial dish or glassware rack from passing onto the floor below. A basin with a solid base and solid sides that is sized and configured to permit interlocking with commercial dish or glassware racks could be placed on the floor at the bottom of a stack of racks, or at the bottom of a dolly, permitting drips from the racks stacked above the basin to be caught by the basin. Further, placing a basin underneath the stack of racks would elevate the clean dish and glassware further from the floor. A beneficial increase in workplace safety and sanitation is a likely result of use of such a device.
Accordingly, this application discloses a basin for use with commercial dish and glassware racks.